


Tangled Web

by Roguefemme



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 19:52:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14859198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roguefemme/pseuds/Roguefemme
Summary: A Jedi General and his clone commander must face the dark reality of the war.For the "Writing Wednesday: Battle Royale" prompt for finish-the-clone-wars on tumblr.





	Tangled Web

**Author's Note:**

> A snippit of an AU that I will probably never fully write, about Jedi Master Quinlan Vos being put in charge of the troopers formerly commanded by Pong Krell and dealing with the fallout of the Dark Jedi's carnage, with ARC Trooper Fives assigned as his clone commander.
> 
> The Siege of Salucamei and Quinlan's motivations and intent are drawn from the later Republic comics.

  
    Quinlan Vos stared down into the valley that held the city of Salucamei, the city to which the GAR and the Jedi had been laying siege for months. Quinlan wondered often if it was a pointless endeavor, but hard on the heels of that thought always came an all too depressingly familiar one: _We have no choice_. They had to shut down or at least contain the production of Morgukai clones before they escaped and began to lay waste to everything in their path.  
  
    "Sir?" Although the clone troopers all had essentially the same voice, ARC Trooper - and lately, Commander - Fives still managed to have an unmistakable sound.  
  
    "I came up here to be alone, Fives," Quinlan remarked with no rancor.  
  
    "Understood, General," Fives said crisply yet somehow irreverently, "But the men get nervous when you brood. Sir."  
  
    That surprised a laugh out of Quinlan despite his previous dark musings, and Fives grinned as he regarded his General.  
  
    There was something about Quinlan Vos was more - _mortal_ , perhaps, Fives couldn't quite put his finger on it - than other Jedi. He had less of that rarefied air about him that most Jedi had. He didn't seem so _above_ it all. Something about Vos told you that he'd been down there in the trenches where the fighting was dirty and ongoing and became less about victory than about just staying alive. Maybe it was Vos's time undercover infiltrating Dooku's Dark Acolytes, when he was constantly in danger from friend and enemy alike.  
  
    "You're a _kriff_ ing pain in the ass, you know that Fives?" Quinlan remarked, still smiling with amusement.  
  
    Or maybe it was just that Quinlan was the only Jedi Master Fives had ever met who swore.  
  
    "I do my best, sir."  
  
    Still chuckling, Quinlan patted the ground next to him. Fives took the invitation and settled down next to his general, putting his helmet down on the other side of him. Now that he'd roused Quinlan a little from whatever dark musings had taken over the Jedi's thoughts, Fives remained quiet, letting his general choose when to break the silence.  
      
    It was unnerving to be on a planet with no wildlife sounds, Fives thought as they sat. No birds, no insects, no sound at all could be heard except the activity from their camp below. It was just creepy.  
  
    Finally Vos spoke. "It feels like we're all being played. Manipulated, like pieces in some foul game," he said, fixing his dark eyes again upon the city below.  
  
    "By Dooku?"  
  
    "No." Quin shook his head without looking at his commander.  
  
    "Then who, sir?" Fives queried, a tickle of unpleasant instinct warning him that he was about to learn something he'd probably be happier not knowing.  
  
    Instead of directly answering his question, Vos asked, "Have you ever heard of the Rule of Two?"  
  
    "Don't let your _vod_ make you buy more than two rounds in a row?" Fives tried to lighten the mood.  
  
    Quin chuckled briefly, shaking his head. "The _Sith_ Rule of Two." He sighed deeply, resigned. "There are always two Sith: a master and an apprentice."  
  
    "So Dooku has an apprentice?" Fives hazarded, but Vos was already shaking his head.  
  
    "I wondered at first, about Ventress... but after spending time among them I became sure. The Dark Acolytes were lackeys, nothing more. Dooku doesn't have an apprentice. He has a Master."  
  
    Fives swallowed hard. For all the GAR cracked jokes and displayed bravado about Dooku, they all knew how frighteningly powerful he was. The thought of an evil being with enough power to control Dooku was a dreadful one even to a hardened ARC Commander.  
  
    "There is another Sith out there, who's making all this happen. Causing all this horror and death."  
  
    Fives suppressed a shudder.  
  
    "I'm going to find the second Sith. And I'm going to kill him." Vos' faraway tone did nothing to ease the chills down Fives' spine. It had taken time for the Jedi and the ARC Trooper to establish mutual trust and respect that was slowly becoming friendship, and now Fives felt a terrible fear that his General - his _friend_ \- would get himself killed trying to end the war all by himself.  
  
    "Sir..." he began, with no idea what he would say but knowing he had to say _something_ to try to stop Quinlan.  
  
    Whatever he might have said was interrupted by hasty footsteps approaching as a trooper climbed the hill toward them as fast as he could.  
  
    "Sirs!" the trooper called before he had reached them, then stopped abruptly before them, panting for breath after his climb. "Sirs, Master Kenobi commed, he wants to talk to both of you."  
  
    "Why, what's happened?" Quinlan demanded, now fully alert and focused on the trooper's dismay.  
  
    "Sir," he looked to Fives. "Your friend, ARC Trooper Tup - he's gone defective, bad. Sir," he glanced between Fives and Quinlan. "He murdered a Jedi."


End file.
